‘Sita followed Ram, why can’t you?’

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday invoked the Ramayana to try and persuade a woman to join her husband at his posting in Port Blair, while in another case the court succeeded in convincing the wife that marriage was more important than her computer training. Hearing an appeal by the husband against the family court’s dismissal of his divorce plea, a division bench of Justices P B Majmudar and Anoop Mohta asked the wife why she could not join her husband. “You should go to him. When Sita could join Ram in vanvas, then why can’t you go?” asked Justice Majmudar. The bench was hearing a case by Ajay Singh, a senior officer with the Shipping Corporation of India, challenging a family court’s January 7, 2012 order dismissing his divorce plea but granting his wife’s plea for maintenance of Rs 20,000 per month. Ajay had moved the family court for divorce on the grounds that his wife Anjali had deserted him. The couple married in April 1999 and had a daughter in May 2000. Ajay was posted to Port Blair on April 17, 2006. But Anjali refused to join him and in May filed a petition for maintenance and told the family court that Ajay was ill-treating her. Ajay subsequently filed for divorce. In the high court, Anjali’s advocate said, “There are reasons why she does not want to live with him.” The judges called the couple to their chamber but could not reach a settlement as Anjali remained adamant. In the second case, the judges were successful in convincing a Pune couple to remain united when the appeal against a family court order came up for hearing. The family court had dismissed husband Suresh’s plea for divorce on grounds of cruelty because his wife Smita Joshi was not willing to have sex with him. Smita in turn appealed to double the maintenance amount.

Suresh had told the family court that Smita “would threaten that she would shout loudly and gather all the family members”. Smita said her mother-in-law was opposed to their sleeping together. At a previous hearing, the high court had told the couple to stay together for a week. On Tuesday, Smita told the judges that she is happy and Ajay “has entered the bedroom”. Justice Majmudar riposted, “Obviously, only he will enter the bedroom. He’s your husband.” The judges directed the couple to continue their “probation” for further four weeks, “Try to win the hearts of each other during the summer period. Go outside Pune city. Go to Mahabaleshwar,” said Justice Majmudar. But then Ajay had a complaint. “She’s out of home all day,” he said. Smita’s advocate told the court that she was undergoing computer training. “Leave computer training aside. This training is more important than computer training,” said Justice Majmudar.